30 June 2026 As I was planning our move to London in 2023 and started swimming around the town on visits that summer, I started to learn about English lido culture and began to hear about this apparently magical, 90-meter long unheated Tooting Bec Lido in south London, London's longest lido (and, I believe, second only to Cambridge's 91-meter / 100 yard length Jesus Green Lido in terms of longest pools in England). I did make it down to the indoor, 33-meter long Tooting Leisu

23 June 2026 I had written over nine years ago about the four Olympic pools in which I'd had the pleasure of swimming, but that post was a couple of years after I had swum in that fourth Olympic pool, the Peter Daland pool at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center on the University of Southern California campus in 2015 ... and that was pool #206 on my #1001pools list! It's taken me over a decade and 600 new pools tallied before I got to add my fifth Olympic pool, but the Olympia Schwim

14-15 June 2026 There are times when you just need a swim, no matter how short, no matter how "un-special" the pool is. Monday morning, June 15th, the last day of my 28-day adventure between Canada and the USA was such a day. I was scheduled to fly back to London that evening from Toronto, but had work calls to do in the morning before flying from EWR Liberty up to YYZ Pearson in the early afternoon. I didn't have time for much - just 1,650 yards - but I wanted a swim to s

12 June 2026 Some pools are iconic for their beauty, for their unique architecture, for the history of competitions held there. But there are also pools in the world that, while possibly having something to offer in & of their inherent pool-ness, are special because of who trained there, because of the excellence produced there. The Meadowbrook Swim Club on the outskirts of Baltimore is rightly famous as the childhood and young adult training ground of Michael Phelps ... Bab

9 June 2026 This is a facility that I've wanted to visit for years ... really for decades, probably going back to my freshman year at the University of Texas when I first met Spencer Martin: J. Spencer Martin circa 1987/1988 Spencer was a year ahead of me and he took many of us first-year members of the men's swimming team under his wing. Though he and I never actually trained together - he was a breaststroker and sprint IMer, me stuck over in the distance lanes - he taught

7 June 2026 I first swam at Burlington's renovated Mountainside Pool (#607) just about three weeks after the multi-million dollar revamp was finished (ribbon cutting was June 30th, 2023) and absolutely loved the three long course lanes, but it was more fun and special to go there this June with Monica, about a week after her wedding and the last full day I had in Ontario this year: My wife and I had started considering Burlington as a future long-term hometown back during the